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Share Your Favorite Linux Distros and Why You Love Them

So we can clearly see the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them, please follow this format:

  • Write the name of the Linux distro as a first-level comment.
  • Reply to that comment with each reason you like the distro as a separate answer.

For example:

  • Distro (first-level comment)
    • Reason (one answer)
    • Other reason (a different answer)

Please avoid duplicating options. This will help us better understand the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

Fedora Silverblue

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

The best thing for an inexperienced user. It’s simply unbreakable. Immutability rocks.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Except it breaks every couple months and the devs have no concept of rolling updates back.

Source: Silverblue user for 2 years.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

My wife has been using Fedora Silverblue for almost 4 year on two laptops. There were no issue, nada, what so ever. It really just works. Yes, some bug could occur. And Fedora bug tracker is an awesome place for dealing with that. I believe, nobody will roll back a change just because of a single bug report but in my experience most bugs are being fixed pretty quickly if a reporter provides info to do that.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Flatpaks were impossible to install JUST THE OTHER DAY.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

This is a random hearsay. Please, show a link to the bug report.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Sure, why not?

github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/5452

Before you get all semantic, despite being on “flatpak” github page, the problem only affected Fedora.

Should I also link to the time where rpm-ostree could not update or install anything? Which of those times should I link?

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

Ok. Bug was fixed. Bugs happen. I guess a regular user will get the fix eventually.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

Also, that didn’t break the system. Sure, a new app wouldn’t be possible to install but the system worked overall and users were able to perform their tasks;)

Raphael , (edited )
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Ohhh, the narrative is changing, previously you were denying any bad things. Progress, perhaps?

Keep in mind it was impossible to install the distribution when rpm-ostree broke and it would be useless when flatpak broke. Of course, you could check the forums and see workarounds but that’s not very different from downloading an older ISO in any distribution.

Alas good luck being a normal user when you decide to install something because… well, it’s your computer. And then it doesn’t work. Repeat this for multiple days several times a year because Fedora devs have no concept of rolling back updates and you got yourself a problem.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

Fedora Workstation

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

The official repo provides all Python versions. No need to use pyenv.

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

It just works. Seriously:)

lig ,
@lig@social.fossware.space avatar

Flatpak is awesome! I don’t like snaps. 🤷‍♂️

atmur ,

Fedora Workstation on desktop, perfect mix of stability and up-to-date packages.

Unraid on the NAS, does pretty much everything I need and haven’t put any thought into using something else.

Ubuntu Server on a few VMs, although I’ll probably look into different options in the future as I’m not a huge fan of Ubuntu.

Arch/SteamOS on Steam Deck, of course.

Debian for anything that I just need to run forever.

juliette ,

Linux From Scratch

juliette ,

Puts you in control of everything

bslinux ,

I did that once, probably 20 years ago now. Never again.

peterjsefton ,
@peterjsefton@mastodon.social avatar

@InternetPirate I've been happy with Ubuntu since 2007, I don't always like Canonical's choices, but they're easily changed. Recently tried Vanilla OS, easy install and seems solid, good alternative to Nix I think.

manpacket ,

undefined> Ubuntu

With each release unsnapping gets more annoying... Now I have to get Firefox from alternative sources...

peterjsefton ,
@peterjsefton@mastodon.social avatar

@manpacket I prefer Flatpak, but Snaps do seem to be getting better, then again I have a history of foolish optimism 🤔

manpacket ,

https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/using-flatpak.html

$ flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP

They still haven't figure out how to make console experience not miserable, maybe one day...

StantonVitales ,

how is that miserable?

manpacket ,

From what I understand from this page and other sources - you have to type that to run gimp or other app. At least that's the impression I'm getting from the documentation. I run most of my stuff from the console and don't like to use aliases.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Fake news.

flatpak install gimp, in terminal, try it.

Fafner ,
@Fafner@yiffit.net avatar

YiffOS

hobbsc ,

MX Linux

hobbsc ,

Great set of custom tools

hobbsc ,

Good overall appearance

hobbsc ,

Great community

hobbsc ,

Option for no systemd

oromis95 ,

Manjaro, it’s just very stable, has access to the AUR, actually looks good and feels like a modern OS should feel.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar

Do I need to roll back my system clock before downvoting this?

Cralex ,

PostmarketOS

Cralex ,

• Android-free Linux distribution specializing in supporting older smartphones.

• Up-to-date software based on Alpine Linux and focused on privacy and security.

• Highly portable construction centered around a single software base regardless of what device it’s running on.

  • Goal of keeping a given device running and updated until it physically falls apart.
CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar
  • Has the widest supported device list of all mobile Linux projects, supports a ton of old Android phones to varying degrees.
tetris11 ,
@tetris11@lemmy.ml avatar

Runs all your favourite programs, on your phone, bells and whistles included

Cralex ,

Manjaro

Cralex , (edited )

• Supports a wide variety of hardware, including ARM devices such as the Pinebook Pro.

• Up-to-date rolling release.

• Multiple DE’s available with customized, clean interfaces.

Raphael ,
@Raphael@lemmy.world avatar
  • Recommends rolling back system clock when they forget to update security critical website components.
TableCoffee ,
@TableCoffee@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve been trying to convert to linux since the mid-2000’s. Ubuntu and derivatives, fedora, and SUSE. Gaming and my lack on knowledge always brought me back to Windows.

In 2018 I tried Manjaro and loved it. But I broke it without the knowledge to fix it multiple times. The Arch BTW memes were strong at the time so I took the plunge and studied the wiki, and documented my own installation process and really learned a lot in the process. Proton was released and suddenly gaming got WAY better. I didn’t remove my windows install completely until 2022 but Arch has been my home on my main machine.

I have since put together a proxmox cluster and run many distros for various things but that’s a whole other rabbit hole!

wxboss ,

Debian

kafka_quixote ,

Perfect for running servers

Pe4rl ,

Arch Linux

Pe4rl ,

My current isn’t vanilla arch, but Endeavour OS, because as an unexperienced user I wanted to have the least trouble while installing, … I regret it ever since, because I began with a Plasma desktop and ended up with i3, mainly because of tiling, problems with some utilities, keyboard switching, etc. In the end, I still love the system, one can get quite minimal with it.

jemorgan ,

I love that you talked about regretting it. Using one of the arch-based diaries that obfuscates the installation process honestly destroys a lot of the benefit of using arch. Having to vaguely understand how the system fits together makes fixing issues a million times easier.

Pe4rl ,

Yep. And I still forgot to mention one thing. It is a 2016 Macbook Pro, which basically means just more work fixing.

festus ,

My favorite too. For me on other distros I was typically running into bugs that I’d find had already been fixed upstream months previously - and then I had to either live with the bug or do some hack to manually install the newer version. Somewhat related to this, but as Linux gamer it was also frustrating to have the older Mesa drivers all the time because it couldn’t support the older kernel version the distro shipped or something.

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar
  • Packages are kept up to date so it’s often the first distro to support new hardware, APIs, etc.
  • AUR provides a huge library of software that isn’t often in package manager repos.
  • Rolling release so you don’t have to deal with repository upgrades every 6 months to 2 years.
  • btw
fzacq9td ,

Gentoo Linux

fzacq9td ,

Being a source based distro, programs are compiled and optimized to your system configuration. Additionally you can add/remove features you dis/like using USE flags.

count0 ,
@count0@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

It allows me to run any weird combination of applications I feel I need on a given day, (fairly) easily integrating basically all open source packages with a custom/local overlay and have those managed as part of the system just like everything else.

Vikthor ,

It has an option to use Open RC init system instead of systemd. Systemd probably isn’t as annoying anymore but I can’t be arsed to make the switch.

speckonsponge ,

BTRFS Snapper GUI preconfigured

snoopa ,

Only Opensuse ships with this, right?

speckonsponge ,

Siduction does too and also have a good documentation

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